Persona: Faith
by GhitalaIbuki
Summary: In a new town after his parents' divorce, a high school boy starts a new life with new friends as a strange phenomenon grips the town.
1. Chapter 1

"How dare you, you asshole!" was heard from across the hall, followed by a dark-haired male sprinting, being chased by a blonde female. I think to myself, _What a great way for the first day of my second year to start._

My name is Ruukassu Fukiyomi, and I am, as of today, a second year high school student. I just moved to this town, Kagoshima, due to my parents getting a divorce, so I was forced to go live by myself for my last two years of high school. I head to the faculty office and get many different looks from people, based off my appearance, of course. People talk about my brown bedraggled hair, my dark, nearly black eyes, and my somewhat slouched posture. If only I got paid everytime I heard a comment on my hair. I walk into the faculty office, which seems to be empty. I turn around to see a teacher, smiling at me.

"Go on in." she says with an inviting tone. I do as instructed, and stand by the first desk I see. She then goes to her desk, which is nowhere near the one I am in front of, and grabs what seems to be my folder. "Ruukassu Fukiyomi, right?" the teacher asks. I merely nod to confirm. "You are in classroom 2-B, that is the second room on the right on the second floor." The teacher smiles and then sits at her desk. I then head out of the faculty office and walk up the stairs.

However, as I walk up the stairs, I notice a paper on the ground and pick it up. I then look around and see a girl in front of me. I say, "Excuse me, umm, I think you dropped this?"

She rudely snatched the paper from my hand. This girl, however, was quite beautiful. She had bright green eyes, long blonde hair, and a cute face. She then stuffed the paper in her pocket then walked away.

"You're welcome..." I say under my breath as I continue walking to my classroom. Unfortunately, it seems this girl is also going to the same class. She takes a seat right in the middle, and I decide to sit in the back by the window. I know, it's the typical anime seat, but I have always sat by the window, ever since middle school. I hear the door slam open as the same dark-haired boy who was being chased by the blonde earlier runs in, and the blonde in question tackles him to the ground.

"Ow ow ow ow!" The boy yells in pain, and the teacher soon walks in on the blonde girl having the boy in a head lock. The teacher merely gives a look, and the girl releases the boy, taking her seat in front of me. The boy merely mutters, "Saved by the bell..."

The girl in front of me then shoots him a glare that screams, _We're not done yet_. I chuckle, and the girl in front of me looks at me. She has these deep blue eyes, and a bit of makeup on, but she still looks pretty.

The girl asks me quietly, "Do you know what he did?" Now that I think about it, what could he have done to make this girl chase him around all morning? Did he cheat on her? Grab her body innappropriately? Maybe he stole something of hers? I shake my head, and she looks around to make sure no one was listening. She then whispers, "He tore my leggings, look!" She sticks her leg out and there is what appears to be a huge hole in her leggings.

I ask, "Was it an accident?"

"I dunno." She responds.

"Well, don't you think you should know that before you chase him down the entire school campus and tackle him?"

She just gives me this glare and her face turns red, before she turns around. I don't think I gave her the answer she was looking for. The teacher then began a long lecture up by the board, and I sorta listened... but not really.

School finally ended, and the dark-haired boy came up to me as I got to the door. "Hey, you're new to this school right? I didn't see you around last year, what's your name? Where are you from?" This boy sure has a few questions.

"My name is Ruukassu Fukiyomi," I respond. "I'm from Shizuoka."

The boy just looks at me with surprise. "Wow all the way from there? That's a little far isn't it?"

I shrug and said "I guess?"

The boy chuckles. "Well my name is Kitoguya Shizuko, I'm a second year like you. Well, that must be obvious, since we are in the same homeroom." he chuckles again lightly, and smiles as an idea seems to cross his mind. "Hey, since you're new here, lemme show you around!"

I smile and accept his invite. He shows me this mall with a bunch of places to hang out, like arcades, restaurants, cafe's and some karaoke rooms. Kitoguya smirks as he finds his way in front of me, and raises his arms out. "Welcome to Kagoshima!" He then points out all the different places here in the mall. Kitoguya realizes soon afterwards that his train would be leaving soon, so he heads to the subway station, and I decide to walk home.

Once I arrive home, I walk in and realize everything is still cluttered in my room, since I'm still just moving in. However, I feel really tired after today, so I carefully flop back on my futon and try to head to sleep. _So this is my new school and home for the next two years..._

When I finally fade into deep sleep, I see a bright light, but I still don't feel as if I'm awake. I then hear a light voice say to me, "Welcome... To the Velvet Room..."


	2. Chapter 2

I awaken to see myself in a violet-colored court room, sitting at the attorney stand. Sitting in the judge's seat is a man with a long nose, and nearby I see - the blonde girl with green eyes! She's just sitting there, typing up something on her typewriter. I think about saying something to her, but decide not to.

The man with the long nose then strikes the gavel on the sound block to call attention to himself. He then lays his gavel down and cross his fingers together, as he looks down at me and says, "Greetings... My name is Igor, and this here is my assistant, Lilliana."

Lilliana then looks up from her typewriter. "Greetings..." Afterwards she continues her work.

Igor continues on with his words. "So, how has your new life been going?"

In shock I say nothing, but I must have a look of surprise on my face, since Igor chuckles at my expression. "You may be wondering where you are now, and how I know who you are. Well, allow me to explain myself."

He pulls out a paper. "Come here and take this." I stand up, and approach the judge's stand to see the lease papers that I had signed for my apartment a while back. This Igor guy somehow then peeled my name off of the documents, and placed it onto another paper, handing it to me.

"This is a contract, one that says you assume all responsibility for the choices you make. Oh." Igor reaches down and pulls something out of his pocket. "Hold onto this." He then hands me what seems to be a velvet key. "You will soon awaken in the real world, and that key will allow you to come here on your own accord, sooner or later. However, for now, your time to leave has come. 'Til we meet again." With that, everything fades out again, and I wake up in my still cluttered room. Looking at the time, I realize with horror that I am running a bit late, so I get up and head out to school with the strange dream in my head.

As I arrive at school, Kitoguya meets me at the gate to greet me. As we walk to class, he asks me a bizarre question. "Hey, have you heard those rumors about what's been going on? Supposedly, the basement of our school has strange creatures in it and the creatures get out at night and feast on the living. Crazy, right?" he laughs, and then a smirk grows on his face. "I bet you won't go down there after school today."

I don't exactly believe in rumors, so I respond with "It's just a rumor, if you want me to go down there to check it out, I will."

Kitoguya then gets a bit of a shocked look on his face. "Whoa, seriously, man. You have bigger balls than me, I'm a little bitch when it comes to those creepy rumors, they freak me out, man." Kitoguya laughs as the first bell rings, letting us know to get to class. As we run towards our classroom, Kitoguya crashes into someone. As he stands back up and quickly apologizes, I see it's Lilliana.

"Geez, watch it, I'm trying to get to class too!" Lilliana shouts.

"S-sorry! I didn't see you there and, I-I," Kitoguya sighs. "I'll be careful next time."

Lilliana then gives a "hmph" and continues walking to class. Kitoguya scratches the back of his head. "Man... She's super cute and I just blew any chances I have with her in the future. Aw, well."

I try to cheer him up by saying, "It's just one girl, besides, you never know what could happen. She could really like you and you just don't know it."

Kitoguya nods. "Yeah. Hey, thanks man, I appreciate that."

As we walk into our classroom, and I sit at my seat, the girl in front of me is giving me a glare as she sticks her tongue out.

Confused by this, I ask, "Huh? What did I do to make you so upset?"

"I saw you yesterday, hanging out with Kitoguya." She responds

"He was just showing me around, that's all. Besides, I don't even know your name, so why does it matter to you?"

She blushes. "Wait, you don't know my name? I didn't introduce myself?"

I shake my head.

"Ahh, that's so embarrassing! Well, I'm Itoko Kotachi, nice to meet you! And I guess I should probably ask your name." she says.

"Ruukassu Fukiyomi, I just moved here." I tell her.

She nods. "I know. If you came here last year, I would probably already know you." she giggled.

The teacher then gets everyone's attention, and the day starts. I half-heartedly listen and stare out the window, waiting for the day to end. However, I find myself becoming very interested in a beautiful blue butterfly outside. As soon as I focus my attention on the butterfly, however, I hear my head start to ring, and I feel it throb a bit. It was only for that brief moment, though, as I felt better shortly afterwards.

The day of school soon ended, and Kitoguya immediately reminded me of the bet we made this morning, practically dragging me out of the classroom. We head all the way downstairs, to the entrance of the basement, and Kitoguya hands me a bat he uses for baseball. "Alright, here you go, this is your weapon. Now go!" he laughs and grins.

I open the door to the lower levels of the school,and start to walk down the stairs, Kitoguya right behind me. While we continue, another door appears, with a sign. In big capital letters, I see, scratched on, almost like a horror flick:

 **DO NOT ENTER**

Kitoguya looks a bit nervous, and says to me, "Hey man, w-we should head back, that thing says not to go in."

I look back. "But isn't this part of the bet?"

He looks down and sighs. "Shit... Me and my fucking mouth... Alright, you first."

I open the door, and it's like a completely new world down here. We continue going down the stairs, and when we finally reach the bottom, we find ourselves in some place that looks like a labyrinth. As we continue walking through the maze, I hear that ringing from when I saw the butterfly earlier, and the splitting headache comes back with it. Two masked black sludge-looking... things then come out of nowhere, and attack Kitoguya, as the ringing grows louder and louder. Through my shock and panic, a voice then rings in my head, loud and clear:

 _"I am thou... Thou art I... From the sea of thy soul, I come..."_

I then feel what feels like a pocketknife materialize in my pocket. My body moves on its own, as I flip the blade open, place it on my palm and dig it into my hand. Everything seems to be happening without my input. As the steel blade touches my skin, my brain doesn't even have what it takes to say that what I'm doing is probably stupid. I take a deep breath and swallow my fear, and I say to myself, slowly and calmly as I tear through my hand with the blade:

"Per... So... Na..."


End file.
